Steve Nash to the Lakers: the political impact

In
explosive sports news that upstaged even the fireworks on the 4th of July, the Los
Angeles Lakers announced that they had traded for Phoenix Suns All-Star point
guard and two-time Most Valuable Player Steve Nash. Nash even at the ripe old
age of 38 is still among the best in the sport having averaged 12 points and
almost 11 assists in 2012. He's also arguably the finest shooter of his generation, with
staggering lifetime shooting percentages of 49% from the field, 43% from three
point land, and over 90% from the foul line.

Understandably
people are already recalibrating the 2012-2013 season, wondering if Nash and
his future Hall-of-Fame teammate Kobe Bryant can not only co-exist but compete
for a championship. I'm personally wondering how Nash will look in purple
and gold which is as bizarrely unsettling as picturing Magic Johnson in Celtic
green. I also am genuinely flummoxed about how Nash’s unique skill set, which
involves dribbling all around the half court until finding an open shooter,
will mesh with Kobe's Bryant's desire to be genetically fused with the ball
like Jeff Goldblum in The Fly.

But a less
discussed question is the political impact, if any at all, of Steve Nash
playing in the white-hot spotlight of Laker-Land. Nash has played most of his
career in Arizona, the state Jon Stewart once described as "The Meth
Lab of American Democracy." More than perhaps any elected official in the
state, Nash has stood out as a voice of sanity. He spoke out against the troop
escalations during the Bush wars, wearing a T-shirt that read, "No war.
Shoot for peace." Nash said he choose to wear the shirt
because, "I think that war is wrong in 99.9 percent of all
cases. I think [Operation Iraqi Freedom] has much more to do with oil or some
sort of distraction…. Unfortunately, this is more about oil than it is about
nuclear weapons.” Nash has also spoken out for LGBT Marriage Equality,
recording commercials in New York State when the legislature was considering
legalization. This is a pro athlete who admitted casually to reading the Communist
Manifesto as a way to better understand Che Guevara.
I wish that wasn’t a controversial thing to say, but it is and he said it.

But above
all else, he’s also is the player responsible for organizing his Suns squad to
speak out against Gov. Jam Brewer's radical, "papers please",
anti-immigration bill, SB 1070. On Cinco de Mayo, 2010, Nash organized the entire team to wear jerseys that read Los
Suns.He said, "I think the law is very misguided. I think
it is unfortunately to the detriment to our society and our civil liberties and
I think it is very important for us to stand up for things we believe in. I
think the law obviously can target opportunities for racial profiling. Things
we don't want to see and don't need to see in 2010."

One
person who didn't like what they had to say, however, was Lakers coach Phil
Jackson.

In an interview with ESPN, Jackson spoke out in support of SB 1070 saying, "Am
I crazy, or am I the only one that heard [the legislature] say 'we just took
the United States immigration law and adapted it to our state.'" When
sports writer J.A. Adande remarked that SB 1070 could mean "the usurping
of federal law," Jackson said, "It's not usurping.... they gave it
some teeth to be able to enforce it."

Jackson, the ex-60s radical, then
challenged the Phoenix Suns right to even talk about it, saying:

"I don't think teams should get
involved in the political stuff," If I heard it right the American people
are really for stronger immigration laws, if I'm not mistaken. Where we stand
as basketball teams, we should let that kind of play out and let the political
end of that go where it's going to go."

But Phil might have been one of the
few people in Los Angeles who didn't like Los Suns. The LA
city council voted 13-1 to "ban most city travel there and to forgo future
business contracts with companies headquartered in the state." Now it's
rumored that Phil Jackson might come back and actually coach the Lakers.
Jackson is famous - or infamous - for assigning books to players to read. Maybe
if he comes back, Nash could suggest something to him.

The bigger question, though, isn’t
about Nash’s politics or the clash that could result from a possible Jackson
return. It’s whether Nash will use the hyper-exalted platform of being a Laker
to be loud and proud about the issues that matter to him. If the past is any
guide, he will continue to speak out. But it’s one thing to do it as the
unquestioned leader – and cash cow – of the Phoenix Suns. It’s another thing to
do it in the purple and gold, while trying to wrest the basketball from Kobe
Bryant’s steely grip. If Nash does continue to be that rarest of
outspoken athletes, he’ll undoubtedly find the heat in Los Angeles to be even
greater than it was in the Arizona desert. But he’ll also find a helluva lot
more shade.